Posts Tagged ‘honda john mendel’

This year "has been the worst I've seen," laments Honda's top U.S. executive John Mendel.

As far as John Mendel is concerned New Year’s Eve can’t come soon enough. The top American executive at Honda says this has been the worst year the Asian automaker has experienced since it first entered the U.S. market – though with its factories now back up to full capacity Mendel believes Honda is finally back on track.

Honda has spent months struggling with shortages of most of its products — notably including the all-new Civic it launched earlier in the year, just before a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan and seriously damaged that nation’s automotive infrastructure. Production is finally back up to normal, just in time for the upcoming launch of the redesigned 2012 Honda CR-V, long the dominant model in the compact crossover segment.

The Final Word!

This year was “the worst I’ve seen,” said Mendel, during an interview while on the launch of the new CR-V. “We came out strong,” at the beginning of the year, with demand the strongest it had been since the U.S. economy collapsed in 2008, “and then, boom.”

The Japanese parts shortage will likely have an impact on the upcoming launch of the new Civic, acknowledges Honda's top U.S. executive.

The biggest product launch of the year for Honda is at risk as the company struggles to roll out the new 2012 Civic.

Like its Japanese competitors, Honda has been hard-hit by the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis, with production in the home market only set to resume next week. The good news for the maker is that nearly 90% of the vehicles it sells in North America are produced in the U.S. or Canada – but even those facilities are feeling the pinch, confirms Honda’s top American executive, in an exclusive interview with TheDetroitBureau.com.

Your Inside Source!

“The situation is changing every day,” says American Honda Executive Vice President John Mendel. The worse part, he admits, is “We don’t know yet” the full extent of the parts shortages created by last month’s natural disaster. “The situation changes day-to-day. It’s very fluid,” Mendel says, adding that all Honda products use at least some components imported from the home market.